This is ridiculous. I am used to being called out (or made fun of) for my overly-active lifestyle, but here on Sunshine Coast I am just another moderately mobile human.
After my relaxing arrival day of ocean swimming, a long walk, a bike ride, and some therapeutic massage, my hosts decided to ease us into the evening with a sunset surf session at Tea Tree Point, a classic right break located on the edge of Noosa State Park. We passed young families, with kids and parents toting boards, as we headed to the beach. It was like they were going to the supermarket: "C'mon, quick surfo for you kids before beddie-bye. Let's go, everyone in the ocean..." Parents paddled out and pushed kids into waves, while Nate and I traded classic longboards back and forth and tried to regain our feel for the water. Dr. Andrew snapped pictures with his 100/400 lens, and we surfed right through sunset, shivering in the spring breakers. There was a koala in the trees above our car, a sight Dr. A says is not all that common.
Sabina and Andrew cooked for us and we all hit bed early, me because of jet lag, our hosts because of a 5:30am 4000-meter swim workout with the local masters program. This is emblematic of the entire culture here; a 90-minute coached swim, thrice a week, is kind of ...normal. I skipped the swim, slept in, and wandered down the village for coffee. At 6:30, there was a group of 40- to 60-year-olds just walking up the hill from a beach "boot-camp" workout. Everybody does something of active significance every day here. It's just part of who they are. I actually felt like a slug for missing the swim workout, so I picked up the sports section to further research the Phenomenon of the Annoyingly Fit Aussie.
15 pages of the morning paper was dedicated to Aussie Rules Football final series, the equivalent of our December/January NFL playoffs. I couldn't do the game justice through my explanation, but we watched a little of what looked like a giant game of Keep Away with a rugby ball and no pads or helmets, scoring by punting through a set of uprights (they may be fit, and their economy way be the only one in the world doing quite well, but until they understand basic safety, they will not be the next Superpower nation...) The rest of the sports page was dedicated equally to tennis, soccer, triathlon, rugby (both kinds - don't ask,) and netball. Participatory sports seem to garner as much attention as the pro leagues, and Andrew described "surf lifesaving" competitions as being both ubiquitous, and a potential professional career, for coastal youths.
Not much to do yet as far as the actual World Triathlon Championships is concerned, as we have no official activities until Thursday. We will spend the next few days swimming and riding, and I am going to test my healing soleus muscle with a short run today.
Coming up next we will explore the odd tendency for Aussies to apply nicknames to almost everything. But it is just after breakie, and I am chockers and waiting for my wettie to dry out. Now where'd I leave my sunnies?
Jeremy
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